House approves additional discounts for solo parents

SOLO parents may soon avail themselves of additional discounts and benefits after the House of Representatives approved proposed amendments Republic Act 8972 or the Solo Parents Welfare Act.

House Bill 6184 principally authored by You Against Poverty and Corruption (Yacap) party-list Representative Carol Jayne Lopez was approved on third and final reading Monday night.

Besides educational and housing benefits, qualified solo parents may also avail of the following 10-percent discount on children’s clothing material and 15 percent discount on baby’s milk, food and food supplement purchased two years from birth of child.

A 15-percent discount on all purchases of medicine for children five years old and below is also provided under the proposed law.

To avail of the expanded benefits, solo parents are required to issue identification cards issued by the city or municipal social welfare and development officer.

Individuals and corporations who will violate the proposed legislation will be penalized with a P10,000 to P100,000 fine and imprisonment of six months to two years.

The counterpart version of the bill filed by Senator Loren Legarda has been pending in the Senate Committee on Youth, Women and Family Relations since September 2010.

With the House version passed, the Senate can either approve its own version of the bill or adopt the measure approved by the House of Representatives.

A bicameral conference committee will be convened to reconcile the conflicting provisions of the two measures approved in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both chambers of Congress need to ratify the bicameral conference committee report before it is sent to President Benigno Aquino III for his signature. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)